These days, it seems that most folks would hardly bat an eye if someone decided to start making and selling abbreviated briefs. Yet while the good folks of Koniaków have been doing this for a couple years, criticism continues from some villagers and from within parts of the Catholic Church.

You see, it wasn't only tablecloths and napkins coming from this Silesian village. They have a long history of making church appointments such as altar cloths and have supplied priests' garments — even providing vestments for Pope John Paul II.

Mieczyslaw Kamieniarz, curator of Koniaków's lace museum, whose family has made lace for five generations, laments the changes. The BBC reports: "'We have made it for John Paul II ... for church altars. It's shameful and humiliating ... that this very same lace is being worn on people's backsides,' he said."

While some church officials continue to be upset and some lace makers worry that they might be sinning by crafting eye-catching underwear, others in town have a more pragmatic approach. They claim that the traditional products weren't selling well enough to continue providing a livelihood.

Additionally, Malgorzata Stanaszek, who set up Koniaków's Koni-Art underwear business, noted that without the new products, offerings to the local parish would greatly diminish. IOL quotes her as saying, "[Our priest will] have to come to terms with it soon. The stringi are funding his contributions."

A random thought: Some women say they wear g-strings or thongs to avoid having their underwear show through their outer clothing. Does this mean that the lace makers of Koniaków are boosting their bottom line by reducing the bottom lines of others?